Who Are Your Readers; The Champion
By Dan Safford

You know what a champion is. He's someone in your client's organization who-for whatever reasons-is on your side, who would like to see you get the job. He will help you learn about the ins and outs of the firm, the hot buttons and the fears. 

Champions are made, not born. No one in your client's firm is going to wake up one morning and say. "Hmmm, I think I'll be a champion for Acme on this upcoming procurement." You have to cultivate a champion. You start by establishing a good working relationship with him and showing him that it's in his best interest to help make the case for you within the client's shop. There is nothing unethical or illegal about this; it's the way business is done. 

The champion is your guide through the procurement process. He wants you to win because he sees that if you succeed, he also gets something out of your success. He will provide insights into the procurement process from the client's perspective. It's your job to capitalize on these insights.

Your champion is your advocate; he is the one who will go to bat for you. But you must write the proposal in way that makes it easy for him to find-and point out to his colleagues-the elements of your proposal that make you the strongest candidate.

Who they are and what they look for. Champions are in management or have management's ear. The ultimate role your champion can play is to be your advocate when the actual selection decision is being made. This means that your champion has to have some input into that process; either as a decision-maker or as an advisor to the decision-makers. 

Your Champion will likely read only those sections he thinks are important to making the decisions. And as he is reading, he will look for places in your sections that he can point out to the decision-makers to make the case for selecting you.

How to write for them. First and foremost, you must focus attention on the areas your champion has told you are important. This sounds like a no-brainer, but it bears emphasizing; in the hectic press of putting together a proposal it's often easy to let important things like this fall through the cracks. That's why it's critical to plan your proposal well, and to give yourself enough time to carry out the plan. 

The worst thing that can happen is if your champion has spent time helping you along and when he opens the proposal he sees you have not focused on the issues he has said are critical. He's stuck his neck out for you, and you have helped chop it off. The champion feels like he has backed a loser, and will often be unavailable to you when it comes to future opportunities.

I have seen this happen, and it ain't pretty.

You also need to make it easy for your champion to point to specifics of your proposal that offer clear benefits to the client. Your champion is your advocate; give him ammunition he can use to argue for you. It'll be easier for him to do that if he can say to his colleagues, "Look, Acme's got that covered right here in these three bullets on page one." 

Finally, spend effort preparing graphics your champion can use to persuade his colleagues. Evaluation panels often deliver their recommendations to upper management via oral presentations. If you provide your champion with a good graphic or two he can use in his pitch, it will help him make your case.

For every project there is at least one potential champion. Your job is to cultivate your champion early in the procurement cycle, learn from him, and deliver what he thinks is important in the proposal. And remember, your competition is cultivating its own champions too.